Who is known as the father of modern genetics?

Gregor Mendel is recognized as the father of modern genetics due to his pioneering work with pea plants in the mid-19th century. Through his experiments, Mendel established fundamental principles of inheritance that describe how traits are passed down through generations. He discovered that traits are inherited in discrete units (now known as genes) and formulated the laws of segregation and independent assortment, which laid the groundwork for the field of genetics.

Mendel’s findings went largely unrecognized during his lifetime, but they became widely acknowledged after they were rediscovered at the turn of the 20th century. His work is foundational to our understanding of how heredity operates, making him a pivotal figure in the history of biology and genetics.

In contrast, while Charles Darwin contributed significantly to the theory of evolution, his work focused more on the mechanisms of natural selection rather than the specifics of inheritance. James Watson and Francis Crick are credited with understanding the structure of DNA and its role in heredity, but this came after Mendel's foundational contributions. Their work expanded on principles that Mendel had already established regarding genetic inheritance.